Teenagers swear they study better with music blaring in the background, though parents may disagree. Now engineers have made digital circuits work better in “noisy” environments too.

For circuits, the noise isn’t the sound of the latest Top 40, but a background buzz that normally disrupts computer processing. Researchers report in the March 13 Physical Review Letters that they have designed new digital circuits that not only cope with this buzz, but need it to work properly.